The Wall Street Journal's Market Watch reports the Basel Action Network and the Electronics TakeBack Coalition joined today with the nation's leading electronics recycler, Electronic Recyclers International (ERI), to announce the development of the e-Stewards Initiative -- a new certification program for North America's most responsible e-waste recyclers.

The e-Steward Initiative will become the first independently audited and accredited electronic waste recycler certification program forbidding the dumping of toxic e-waste in developing countries, local landfills and incinerators; the use of prison labor; and the unauthorized release of private data. Sarah Westervelt, e-Stewards project coordinator at the Basel Action Network (BAN) in Seattle, states:

"Unfortunately today, most companies calling themselves electronics recyclers are scammers. They simply load up containers of old computers and ship them off to China or Africa. By choosing an e-Steward recycler, consumers and large businesses are assured that their old computers and TVs will be safely managed, and not simply tossed into a local landfill, processed unsafely by prison laborers, or exported to developing countries."